What have you been reading?

If you're anything like me, you are usually always in the midst of about 5 different books...and have a long list of others that you really want to get to.

I always think that I'll write a review and let you know how great the latest book was/is, but then I start reading the next one and I forget to tell you all about it.

So, I think I'm going to give you a quick list and summary of books I've been reading, and those that I'm getting ready to read, and ask you if there are any that I should be adding to my list :).

Ready for some fun?  Let's go!

In the historical fiction arena, I read several books over Christmas.  The one that really stuck out to me was "While We're Far Apart" by Lynn Austin.  I subscribe to an email service that tells me about FREE Christian downloads on Amazon and this one popped up months ago.  I downloaded it and finally got around to starting it while we were driving down from Nairobi.  It takes place during WWII and intertwines many different, separate lives to tell a story of heartbreak and reconciliation, of loss and redemption, of fear and peace.  The letters that are interspersed throughout the book, written from a Jewish son that has left the US and gone back to study in the family's native Hungary, and follows all of the torment and actions of the Nazis, the loss of family members, had me in tears several times on our drive.  I like how she tied in the real life Raoul Wallenberg and the things he did to save so very many Jews from the Nazis in Hungary, he was shown as a kind of "Schindler's List" type character.  The reality of what these people went through, and how so many struggled to get action and financial support to those hurting moved my heart immensely.  

In the short inspirational arena, I read Dietrich Boehnhoffer's "Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible."  It was recommended by one of our speakers at the conference that we attended up in Kenya.  He spoke 3 mornings on the Psalms and how they are the communal prayer.  How as children we learn to speak to our parents by parroting and copying their speech...how then do we not see the need to teach our children and ourselves how to pray by using God's own words when we pray to Him? The Psalms allow us to come together in a common and understood hurt, complaint, grief, and then to see the praise part at the end.  No other book besides Isaiah is more quoted in the New Testament than the Psalms.  In the Jewish faith, many of them read dozens of Psalms a day, and over the course of their life, they are memorized.  All it takes is for someone to say the first line and the whole Psalm is recalled to their memory.  I can't say I'm reading dozens a day, but I am adding them into my quiet time each day, and making notes on how these verses have been turned into Praise and Worship music in our churches. I love singing my prayers, how beautiful is that?

In the education arena, I've been reading "Muslim Ministry in the African Context." It is a book put out in a series called Africa's Hope by the Assemblies of God.  I'm about half way done, but it has really opened my eyes to praying for and about my understanding and feelings toward those of the Muslim faith.  I believe I always had just a very cursory overview and understanding of what Muslims believe.  As we've been meeting more of them here in Africa, as Indy has been teaching them and they've been asking him questions about Jesus, it has become so obvious to me that I need to know more about what they believe, about how to talk to them, about how to explain to them what we believe and how to show them God's love.  

In the past month I've also read "The Bait of Satan: Living Free of the Deadly Trap of Offense, "Always the Baker, Never the Bride" (yes, a cute Christian romance), "A Marriage Carol," A Simple Amish Christmas," "Divine," "Total Truth" (I'm still working on this one) and probably a few others I'm not remembering.

I want to read "Dietrich Boehnhoffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy," also Mitch Stokes' "A Shot of Faith to the Head" which came as a recommendation from a Pastor friend of ours back in Colorado.  Krypto wants me to read "The Mysterious Benedict Society" and there are probably a couple of hundred other books that I've downloaded to my Kindle that need to make it on the list at some point.

Did any of these look interesting to you?  Are there any you think I should add to my list?

Reading List for our 2nd Grader

You might have read the previous blog post about the reading list for our 4th grader, well, this is the list for our 2nd grader.  And, the reasons we came up with it were a bit different.  We primarily want to build Gwangi's confidence.  We want him to know that he can successfully read more than comic books and some Magic Treehouse books, on his own.  

This time last year, at the beginning of 1st grade, he seemed to have forgotten all of the "Cat and the Hat" reading that he could do at the end of Kindergarten.  Throw into the mix an international move and about 4 months of no school...and we had some major re-learning that had to be done.  Throughout the year we just kept plugging away at his "Explode the Code" phonics books and "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" and by the end of the school year, he could read a chapter a day of a Magic Treehouse book to me.  I was thrilled!  Over the summer, he started reading to his sister, reading street signs, noticing things on my email and Facebook as he would walk by the computer, etc.  I knew he was able to read more; but, try as I might to get him to check out other books at the library, when given a choice, he wanted to read Garfield, Astrix, Duck Tales, and Tintin comics and if I made him, he would read a chapter book out loud to me.  I asked him one day, "Why won't you read chapter books on your own?"...he said "Because I can't read as well as Krypto can...I can just read comics."  No way, I didn't know he thought that way about himself....so, we've been buoying his confidence.  I've been having him read some short chapter books to Sissi at quiet time and telling him when I leave the room that he has to read 2 chapters of his Magic Treehouse book before he can play Legos during the rest of quiet time.  I'm hoping that he'll get to the point that he'll voluntarily pick up a book and read it, for enjoyment, not because I'm mandating it!  If he can find a series, or author, that he can enjoy, I pray it will lead to more reading, by choice.

2^nd Grade Reading List

Encyclopedia Brown, book of choice

Carole Marsh, book of choice

Imagination Station Books

Danny Dunn, book of choice

A to Z Mysteries, book of choice

Hank the Cowdog

Nate the Great, book of choice

The Littles, book of choice

Make Way for Ducklings

Keep the Lights Burning Abbie

The True Story of Balto

Owl at Home

Daniel’s Duck

Greg’s Microscope

Surprises

Children’s Illustrated Classics series, book of choice

How have you handled the transition from reading for an assignment, to reading for pleasure?  Have your children enjoyed the above book series, or others?  Share what you can with me.

***UPDATE - I wrote this blog post yesterday, and had it scheduled to post today.  Well, yesterday I gave the boys their lists....Gwangi picked "Robinson Crusoe" from the Children's Illustrated Classics series as his first book to read.  I left them during quiet time with the instructions that he had to read 2 chapters before he could play Legos.  At the end of the hour, he comes to my room, book still in hand and talking all about what was happening and what he liked about it and how exciting it was to build a fort.  He had read 5 chapters!  Oh, and then he put his Math U See lesson into use too, he told me that since there were 15 chapters in the book, he was going to read it in 3 days :)... (he had just done Beta, Lesson 9 yesterday, which is skip counting by 5's.)  Woohoo, a good day all around!

Reading List for our 4th Grader

"Reading Lists? Why would you do a reading list for such a voracious reader as Krypto?"  Well, read on....

Indy and I decided to come up with "Reading Lists" for our boys.  We take them to the library each week, and they read plenty of good fiction and non-fiction in our school day; but, for free reading, we were noticing some "fixations"....  Krypto, our 9 year old 4th grader, seemed to only be reading Roald Dahl (over and over again, they were memorized) and anything Sci-Fi/Fantasy he could get his hands on.  I am NOT saying Sci-Fi/Fantasy isn't good, there are lots of good choices in that genre; but, to be fixated on it, to the exclusion of so many other good choices that are available....well, we thought, we would try to broaden his horizons a bit.  The hope is, if he finds a good book by another author, or in another genre/time period, that he might continue to pursue that author or time period and find a few other gems that he can enjoy.

So, here is the list we compiled last night.  We gave it to him this morning and he is actually really excited about it.  It's got a little bit of everything on it - historical fiction, classics, anthologies, modern Children's Lit, Christian fiction, Newberry Award winners, etc.  He'll be reading some other great classics with our study of the 1800's this year for History and Literature with Tapestry of Grace.  I'll share those as I do my "School Updates" throughout the year.  For example, in the next few weeks he'll be reading "Once on this Island", "The Swiss Family Robinson", and "Imprisoned in the Golden City."

4th Grade Reading List

Henty - With Lee in Virginia

Henty - True to the Old Flag

Henty - Through Russian Snows

Yesterday’s Classics (YC) - Otto of the Silver Hand

YC – Poems Every Child Should Know

YC - Ten Boys Who Lived on the Road from Long Ago to Now

YC - Great Inventors and Their Inventions

YC - The Secret of Everyday Things

YC - Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago

YC - Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago

The Cricket in Times Square – George Selden

Indian in the Cupboard – Lynne Reid Banks

Jungle Doctor – next in the series

That Printer of Udell’s

The Lamplighter

Ballantyne – The Coral Island

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Call of the Wild

The Tower Treasure

Tom Swift series – your choice

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Any other ideas that you may have, please share...I can add them to a future list.  I'm all ears.  Again, this is by no means an all-inclusive list.  The point is to get him to the different areas on his Kindle, introduce him to a few new authors, and show him that there are so many wonderful genres and books for him to read.  I hope this has given you some ideas as well.  Tomorrow, I'll post the list we made for our 2nd grader.

More Good Books for your Kids to Read

Here it is...installment #2 of books that I think are good for kids to read.

Last time I focused more on whole sets of books and most of them were definitely "older" in their original publication dates.  The benefit of these older books is that they are usually free or pretty cheap on Kindle.  Also, because more people are interested in these classics, they are all being newly published, so you'll get a nice, newly printed edition if you order them through a publisher.

I did mention one series last time that is modern, the Landon Snow books.  Here is the review I included from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, if you missed it last time.  Krypto really enjoyed this series.

http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/3577.php

Now, on to other books and series that we've enjoyed recently.

1. The Carole Marsh Mysteries.  Her series by-line is "Real Kids, Real Places" and that is what she does....she sets each book in a real place that you can go and visit after reading the book (the Biltmore, Ft. Sumter, Disneyworld, New York City, The Alamo), and she has real kids that go along on the adventure and help to solve the mystery.  I know growing up that I liked to read the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books.  These just might be the answer to the "updated" children helping to solve a mystery genre.  By the way, Krypto just this week checked out the first in the Hardy Boys series.  I'll let you know what he thinks after he reads it.

2.  The Imagination Station series.  Do your kids like the "Adventures in Odyssey" radio drama?  Well, there are now 8 books that are out that have a "Magic Treehouse" like feel to them.  The kids travel through time...Medieval, Rome, Vikings, Marco Polo, War of the Roses, Bible times, Plymouth, etc. and meet historical characters and learn biblical lessons.  Krypto told me after he read the 5th one, "Showdown with a Shepherd," that the lesson was that it was more important to "have a giant faith in God than have a giant on your side."  I like that!

3.  Redwall.  Wow, twenty two books about animals that talk, in a made up fantasy world, and my boy is loving them.  I can hardly say anything more...so I asked Krypto, "If another kid asked you why they should read the Redwall series, what would you say?" His reply was, "Well, the characters are almost alive when you read them, I really like them, and all you really need is a good imagination and you feel like you're in the book."  I would say that is a pretty good referral for a kids' book.

4.  Jungle Doctor series.  You had to know I'd bring up something that is based in Africa, right?  This series was originally published in the '50s and has been republished many times.  They take place right here in Tanzania actually, at Mvumi hospital.  We got our set from Vision Forum, before we left the States, and I only brought the first 6.  Krypto was given the first 2 or 3 for Christmas and really liked the adventure aspect of them.  I definitely think it's important for young children to appreciate other cultures and you can't do that just by teaching them the history and geography of a country or a region.  They have to read the literature, too.  They need to see the different terms that are used, how people react and interact differently than we would in our Western society.  I'm sure there are many other series out there like this...if you're interested in a certain region or culture, do some internet searches.  You might be surprised at the books that will come to your attention.

5.  What about those of you that don't want to order a bunch of new books....well, do you have access to a library?  Maybe print off the Newberry and Caldecott Medal Winners.  The Newberry Award has been around since 1922 and Caldecott since 1938...you're talking about 165 books that are considered "the best of the best" each year.  Have we read them all, absolutely not :)....but, over time, I'm sure many of them will slip in either through interest, free reading, or because of school.

***Upon posting this, I felt a disclaimer was in order.  In no way have I read or even checked every title on the Newberry or Caldecott Medal Winner lists.  I'm sure that I would not agree with "every" book on the lists. SO, just being certain that you understand I am not blanket condoning reading an award winner, simply because it is an award winner.  As with all things, do your homework, read reviews, read a few chapters before your children do to be sure you approve, ask friends, PRAY about discernment, and take into account your own child's personality, maturity, dreams, emotional level, etc. when choosing books for them to read!!!!

Newberry List for you to print - includes Doctor Dolittle, The Tale of Despereaux, A Wrinkle in Time, Carry On Mr. Bowditch, Sarah Plain and Tall, etc, etc....
http://www.abcteach.com/free/n/newberywinners.pdf

Caldecott List for you to print - includes Snowy Day, Where the Wild Things Are, Invention of Hugo Cabret, Abraham Lincoln, Make Way for Ducklings, etc, etc....
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottwinners/caldecottmedal

Has any of this been helpful to you?  Have you gotten some new ideas?  Have you, or your children, read something recently that you just loved?  Let me know...maybe I should do another post about the books that I've been reading...hmmmm?!

Good Books for your Kids to Read

As a mom of younger children...ie. I don't have teenagers that are beginning to make their way in the world and have had 14+ years of loving parents pouring their time and God's Word into their heart so that they can accurately discern right from wrong and make decisions that would please God's heart....I am often confused and disheartened to hear other parents and teachers say that "classic literature" is boring, or too difficult for young children to understand, not relevant, not interesting, etc, etc.

I will not be disrespectful and "book bash" here; but, instead, I will start putting up blog posts and reviews of what I consider to be good literature for younger kiddos to read.  I don't expect to change anyone's mind...rather, I feel that by offering time tested options that are interesting, that are full of adventure, that I don't have to turn the other way because there is bad language or intense love/violent scenes, that have lessons of character that are good for the young and old to read, that by doing this and offering these options, that maybe, just maybe you might pick up a few for your own kids and realize that there are really some excellent "classic" books out there for your children to read, or have read to them.

1.  To start off, I'll tell you about some collections that we personally have purchased.  Here alone is a library to get you started and would keep any avid reader busy for quite some time.

http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/o/ebooks.php

Last year, Yesterday's Classics ran a deal where 225 of their books were available for purchase on Kindle for just $99.  That's less than .50 a book!  They are currently for sale for $150.  If you scroll through the link listed above, you can see pictures of all the books included and brief paragraphs about what each book is about.  The books are divided into more than 20 genres/topics.

Krypto is currently reading "Boys and Girls of Colonial Days" for our Tapestry of Grace curriculum. After he read 2 chapters of it this morning, he came out talking all about the story of the girl that was making soap while her mother went to visit a sick neighbor with her herbs.  The Indians came to visit and they had turkeys for sale.  Knowing that her family would want a turkey for their holiday dinner; but, having no money, she traded her soap for the turkey and then realized that she didn't have anymore soap.  She made another batch and Krypto said it was a whole "How to" on the process of making soap.  He wanted to try it, right then, and see if the hen's egg would float on the top like the girl in the story said it would.

That is a great story in my mind!  You have history, education, it's exciting, and there is moral development going on as well.  From this series we've read several other books, mostly history; but, they were all enjoyable to an 8/9 year old!

2.  Another large collection that would keep most any child busy for months on end...

http://www.henty.com/s86p1428.htm

Have you heard of GA Henty?  Even the other day when I was watching Downton Abbey, they mentioned him in the show!  Yes, a British Author that had boys and wanted them to have character building, adventure stories.  He tied them all into a historical time period and so you get some history, a character lesson, lots of adventure, and a gospel message at the same time.  Interested... you can get the individual books for free on Amazon OR pay a couple of dollars (maybe $4) and buy a collection of all of them together.  There is also the option to buy them in paperback and hardback if you so desire.  Let's just say, we have the entire collection on Kindle and about 20 of them in hardback in storage.

3.  http://www.visionforum.com/browse/product/complete-rm-ballantyne-adventure-library/

In the same vein as Henty...what about RM Ballantyne?  A Scottish man who traveled to America, worked in publishing, and was an artist.  Again, adventure stories, more geared to boys; but, I've heard of lots of girls that have enjoyed this series of books.  On Amazon, I think you can get the whole series for about $2.

4.  http://www.lamplighterpublishing.com/

Another group of hundreds of good books would be the Lamplighter Series.  We have probably more than 30 of them, mostly in storage...and a few on Kindle.  I've incorporated them into the kids' free reading time and this summer I had Krypto read and write a review on "Sir Knight of the Splendid Way."  Also this past summer, at the homeschool convention in Winston-Salem; Krypto spent his own money to buy one of them, "The Lost Ruby."  Here's what the website says in a review of "The Lost Ruby"...

This is the story of young Lieutenant Wildberg and the heavy price he paid for succumbing to the subtle temptation of wordly logic.  Though at first his "indiscretion" seemed to accomplish a great and noble good, it eventually brought grief  and harm to those he loved.  He learned that "Even the most trivial lie is an evil seed."


5.  If you want something that was published in the past 20 years or so.... :), here is a series we recently found and truly enjoyed.  The Landon Snow series.  Let's just say Krypto was carried away, he loved the Narnia series and this reminded him of it and a bit of "Alice in Wonderland", too.  He instantly noticed the Biblical allegory, it wasn't subliminal in anyway and we had some great conversations about the books.  In no way am I saying that modern publishing can't put out good books; but, I do feel they are much fewer and farther between.

Here's a review of the Landon Snow series from "The Old Schoolhouse Magazine"

http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/3577.php

There are so many other good books out there.  As a family we've listened to the Narnia audio series done by  Focus on the Family.  We're reading through the Little House books as a family too, currently, we've been reading "Little House by Silver Lake" though there's been a bit of a hiatus as we read "Amon's Adventure" for Lent.

I'm planning on posting more about good books that we read.  Awesome options that your children will want to read.  You won't have to say "No, you can't read that" anymore or "Well, at least they're reading", or even worse "Well, they're going to read it anyway"...instead, when you question a book that your child has picked up at the library (and as parents we should be careful what those little eyes, ears and minds take in...remember the children's song "oh be careful little eyes what you see...") and aren't convinced it's worthy of a read, don't think it's inevitable that they'll read it anyway, have a substitute...an option for them.

As a parent, we have to be involved, we have to question everything that goes into making them the person they are going to become.  Once those images or ideas are in there, it's much harder to get them out.  My children dream vividly and take most things at face value, they are too young to be overly analytical at this stage.  That is why God gave children parents, to do the analyzing and shield their children from the inappropriate material that is bombarding them in this world.  They'll have time enough as teenagers and young adults to spread their wings and discern right from wrong; but, if we've spent those first 14 years pouring the good in, I'm convinced that they will be much better able to make the "right" decision without much help from us.  We'll be there, and I hope they will come back to us for wisdom and advice; but, I'll feel comfortable and sure that my little birds will soar!!!!